Quicken Loans offers Calyx LOS to its third-party originators

Quicken Loans Mortgage Services and Calyx Software are rolling out a loan origination system for third-party originators that work with the Detroit-based mortgage company.

Dubbed the "Quicken Loans Origination System," or QLOS, the software is essentially a version of Calyx's Point LOS that comes preconfigured with tools for Quicken's TPO partners, especially financial institutions that are just entering or re-entering the mortgage space. It also may be used to ease the transition for institutions that previously have been selling or brokering loans to another mortgage company.

TPO firms will license the software from Calyx for a fee and receive back-office support from both Calyx and Quicken.

"We saw a need in the marketplace [among] smaller banks and credit unions that didn't have an LOS," said David Schroeder, vice president of Quicken Loans Mortgage Services, said in an interview.

David Schroeder, vice president of Quicken Loans Mortgage Services.

Charlotte, N.C.-based Quicken Loans Mortgage Services buys brokered and closed loans from financial institutions servicing-released, with agreements to refer borrowers back to the original institutions and not solicit them for future mortgages.

Although Quicken has proprietary technology used in its retail channel for consumer-direct originations, it found Calyx's system better suited for use by smaller banks and credit unions in the third-party origination channel for closed and brokered loans.

Quicken Loans found Calyx system to be "the most nimble and scalable" for small and midsize lenders, Schroeder said.

"We got a call from Quicken and co-developed this over the last 12-18 months," said Bob Dougherty, vice president of business development at Calyx Software.

Quicken also recently released an automated valuation tool called QL Property Hub for its TPO partners to use for free. The tool is designed to make it easier to obtain property details and timely comparable sales data earlier in the origination process and is an alternative to less-reliable public sources for information like property square footage, room count and zoning.

Quicken began tested Property Hub internally before offering it to TPO firms and will likely roll it out more broadly at the company.

"It's an informational tool for taking a better application," said Schroeder, noting that the appraisals has been one of the biggest "wild cards" in efforts to control closing timelines.